The present invention relates generally to motor vehicular wheel structures, and more particularly to a universal wheel system which will allow installation of the wheel and an attached tire to a vehicle regardless of the vehicle's lug bolt configuration radius.
With the advent of increased motor vehicle usage and the ownership by many families of more than one vehicle, it has become increasingly important to provide for interchangeability of tire-bearing wheel systems from one vehicle to another. Additionally, with more and more drivers utilizing replaceable tire systems on their vehicles, such as separate sets of snow tires, separate sets of racing tires, and the like, the need for a universal, interchangeable tire has been further reinforced. With the many forms of improved and often expensive tire products now on the market, the use of a universal wheel system would allow the transfer of a set of usable tires to a second vehicle with a different lug bolt configuration radius.
Most of the problems inherent with the interchangeability of wheels from one car to another car stem from the use by the major vehicle manufacturers of three different lug bolt configuration radii. The largest automotive manufacturer in the United States, for example, utilizes a lug bolt radius of 5 inches on most of its standard-sized cars while most of its intermediate-sized automobiles utilize a lug bolt radius of 43/4 inches. The conventional wheel sold as standard factory equipment on almost all vehicles, and its associated tire, can only be used on a vehicle having that exact lug bolt configuration radius. Any attempt to transfer the wheel with or without an attached tire would be futile if the car to which this wheel assembly was being transferred has an altogether different lug bolt configuration radius. In fact, the same exact model of one automobile in 1 year may not coincide with the lug bolt radius configuration of that same model as manufactured in the following year.
It becomes apparent for the reasons set forth above, that a universally transferable steel "standard equipment type" wheel would offer much convenience in terms of seasonal wheel changes as well as transfers of one set of tires and wheels to another or successive vehicle.
While interchangeability between different lug bolt configuration radii is of prime importance and is one of several objectives the present invention attempts to secure, the manner in which this universality is obtained, as well as the mechanical and structural soundness of the universal system are also of extreme importance. The universal wheel should provide for its user the same degree of strength and structural rigidity to keep the wheel, and the tire mounted therewith, in place, as does the present, non-universal wheel provided by the manufacturer when the vehicle is purchased. It must similarly be capable of maintaining this strength and rigidity under various, and sometimes demanding, torque applications exerted during severe acceleration and braking conditions.
Along with its universal design and strong construction such a universal wheel must also provide installation means which make its use practical. A vehicle manufacturer and wheel user would refrain from adopting a universal wheel concept which proves to be difficult, time-consuming to install, or which would require an unreasonable amount of locating, positioning, and securing to the drum apparatus from which the lug bolts protrude.
In recent years, there have been several developments in the area of universal wheel system devices. One such device is set forth in the Adair patent, U.S. Pat. No. 2,590,363. The device utilizes a series of slotted openings radiating outwardly from the center of the wheel through which the lug bolts can protrude for final fastening by nut fastening devices. The Adair wheel provides a plurality of these openings to fit the wheel to a four, five, or six bolt configuration in which the radii of any of the bolt configurations can range significantly. While the Adair device substantially discloses a concept offering a universal wheel device to accommodate different bolt number and bolt radius configurations, a design of the type disclosed by Adair, for the most part, fails to incorporate elements to achieve strength under torque, since the bolts are not restrained in place mechanically other than by the nuts fastening them. Nor does the Adair wheel substantially provide a method of locating, positioning, and securing the lug bolts on the wheel. Most devices incorporating the Adair design attempt to achieve universal axial alignment no matter the particular combination of lug aperture configurations by insuring that each lug bolt, no matter what the overall configuration, projects through a given aperture proximate at least one side of the aperture. Washers are then placed over the protruding big bolts, and lug nuts are used to lock the wheel in position. Some of the apertures have counter-sunk designs to assist in restraining the wheel in place. The resulting installation provides a non-positive locking arrangement which can be susceptible to loosening, since the washers do not fill the unused portion of the slots, and do not brace the lug bolt. Additionally, each of the lug nuts can possibly bear unevenly on the wheel causing potential unbalancing when the wheel is in movement.
Another universal type wheel is disclosed in the Vachon patent, U.S. Pat. No. 3,166,357. Instead of incorporating longitudinal slotted orifices radially extending from the center of the hub portion of the universal wheel, the Vachon device utilizes a series of circular orifices patterned to accept several configurations, over which an alignment plate is placed before final securement to the vehicle's drum from which the lug bolts protrude. The Vachon wheel, which relates primarily to custom wheels, utilizes this alignment plate, or annular plate as it is sometimes called, to provide the universal feature for the wheel by fitting the plate to a particular lug bolt configuration. However, as with many of the wheels of the previously discussed Adair design, the Vachon wheel can be prone to considerable structural weakness since the use of many orifices, defining lug bolt configurations in the wheel, removes metal from the wheel. Too, the Vachon wheel can be difficult to locate, position, and secure to the vehicle's drum, especially in light of the need to simultaneously secure the annular plate while installing the wheel. Additionally, manufacturing a wheel with as many as 15 orifices drilled or stamped into it, together with the required annular plate that must be fitted to the particular vehicle lug bolt configuration radius on which it is to be installed, makes the Vachon type wheel somewhat prohibitive in cost while limiting the true universality of the Vachon wheel.
Another universal wheel is disclosed in the Beith patent, U.S. Pat. No. 3,329,468. Beith discloses a vehicular wheel structure which is also universally applicable to vehicles regardless of their wheel lug bolt configuration radii. Beith teaches the use of shaped lug apertures accommodating any one of a series of different lug bolt configuration radii. In order to accommodate the lug bolts in 41/2 inch, 43/4 inch, and 5 inch configuration radii, Beith utilizes two sets of adaptors which fit into a seated region proximately surrounding an elongated slotted aperture. One set of adaptors has a circular lug bolt hole towards one end of its oval shape which would fit the 41/2 inch and 5 inch radii lug bolt configurations depending on which end of the aperture the circular hole end was placed. The elongated oval-shaped adaptor in many respects acts as a positive indexing device. As an example, when the adaptors are correctly in place, the lug bolt holes in the adaptors accurately correspond to the positions of lug bolts arranged in a 5 inch configuration radius. The lug bolt thus extends through the circular hole in the disk-shaped adpator which is further restrained in place within the seated or counter-sunk portion of the wheel immediately surrounding the slotted oval lug aperture. If the wheels were to be used with a 41/2 inch configuration radius, the hub bolt would be indexed by Beith's adaptor when the oval-shaped adaptor is reversed in position from that used for the 5 inch configuration. Further, the adaptor is restrained in place into the seated portion of the wheel, and since locked into position further restrains the hub bolt positively in place, allowing final fastening through the use of a lug bolt nut.
A separate second type of adaptor device is needed for use in one embodiment of the Beith device for a third configuration radius. This adaptor has a circular hole fabricated at its center to, in similar fashion, encircle the protruding lug bolt of a 43/4 inch radius lug bolt configuration. This second type of adaptor, having a hole directly in the center for the intermediate range of 43/4 inch is, similarly, locked into position by insertion into the seated portion surrounding the lug bolt aperture and further allows, in a comparable manner, the final attachment of the wheel to the vehicle's lug bolts and wheel drum by use of wheel lug bolt nuts.
It should be appreciated that Beith discloses one of the earlier prior art devices which utilizes a positive locking system, thus reinforcing the strength and wear characteristics of the wheel with relation to the wheel drum and protruding lug bolts. Beith basically discloses a universal wheel utilizing a positive locking system and a series of adaptors reinforcing this system, strengthening the wheel and making it a practicality.
An alternative to these prior art universal wheel devices is offered in the form of the present invention which offers several advantages over the prior art inventions.
In most of the examined prior art, few of the devices address themselves to the facilitated locating, positioning, and securement of the universal wheel to a vehicle's lug bolts. On the Vachon and Adair wheels, for example, the determination of which orifices or slots respectively, to be used when installing the wheel on the vehicle must often be based on trial and error or guesswork. Additionally, after the proper orifices on the Vachon wheel have been selected and inserted over the protruding lug bolts, the proper size annular plate must be attached onto the wheel before it can be bolted by fastening devices into a secure fit. With the Adair wheel, as previously mentioned, the selection of the proper radiating slots does not necessarily guarantee proper alignment of the center of the wheel with the vehicle's axle center, thus causing misalignment and wheel balancing problems. Further, with the Adair wheel, the wheel is restrained only by a minimal amount of contact provided by each lug as it meets with the straight sides of each aperture. The entire lug is not completely surrounded or maintained in place by metal positioned within the slots but is rather restrained in place by minimal spot face contact and the additional friction force exerted on it by securing nut fastening devices.
The Beith patent also discloses a series of geometrically shaped devices which can be utilized as alternatives to the substantially ovate longitudinal shape as adaptor-washer devices. As an example, Beith's triangularly-shaped adaptor can be reoriented in a triangularly-shaped seat without requiring two separate sets of adaptors to accommodate three different lug bolt configuration radii. But, in all of the Beith disclosures, the inserted portion through which positive locking is attained will totally encircle the protruding lug bolt. Beith additionally discloses the possibility of not using any adaptor inserts at all, but rather suggests that the space between the protruding lug bolt and the encompassing lug aperture be occupied by a space-filling bolt. The feasibility of such a suggestion could still present problems in positioning, locating and securing the wheel, which are aided by the present invention. Additionally, the use of the Beith seating regions on stamped steel wheels can present problems since the thickness of a stamped steel wheel does not lend itself properly to the fabrication of a seating region and the costs involved with manufacturing such a seated region on a standardly used steel wheel could be prohibitive.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide an alternative universal wheel system applicable to any type of wheel, including stamped steel wheels which provides a positive locking system with inherent strength characteristics to lock each individual protruding lug bolt in place.
Additionally, it is an object of the present invention to provide for a vehicle manufacturer and a vehicle user a universal wheel system utilizing a minimum of adaptor-type locking means by requiring only one type for use on any lug bolt configuration.
It is also an object to provide ease for a vehicle manufacturer and vehicle user in locating, positioning, and securing the wheel by making it unnecessary for a locking insert device to completely surround the protruding lug bolt.
Further, it is an object of the present invention to reduce the cost of manufacturing a universal steel wheel by eliminating any need for seating areas around any of the lug apertures so as to enable the present invention to be offered as standard equipment on mass-produced vehicles.
Also, it is an object of the present invention to provide a universal wheel system which makes unnecessary the use of large annular locking devices and special ancilliary locking equipment which can be different for each type of lug bolt configuration.
Finally, it is an object of the present invention to provide a universal wheel system usable as is furnished with a vehicle, allowing interchangeability of the already available wheel to any other vehicle of different lug bolt configuration radii.